"Slim" Delano
In Gimlet Comes Home, "Slim" Delano was an American gangster who operated an illegal whisky in Glencarglas, using Gimlet's property of Strathcarglas Lodge as a base. With the end of Prohibition in America, Slim was on the lookout for any money making racket. Some time before the beginning of World War 2 or during the conflict itself, Dartmoor escapee Burke discovered an unused whisky distillery built by Gimlet's ancestors in the Glencarglas and alerted Slim to the possibilities. Slim later told Gimlet that he had then joined the army to fight the Germans and got himself shipped to Britain. Once there, he deserted, joined Burke and gathered a gang to operate the still. Slim ran a sophisticated operation which demonstrated to Gimlet that he had "brains". Ponies used to carry barrels of whisky up from the still to the Strathcarglas Lodge were shod with shoes which made tracks like stags (an idea he or Burke might have picked from a history book). The whisky was shipped by a lorry and transported to London where it was distributed under the cover of a company manufacturing and selling vinegar. A spy, Singer was planted as Gimlet's butler to warn the gang of his movements, particularly if he should come to Scotland to inspect his property. Burke himself, posed as an innkeeper at the Glencarglas Arms, which always seemed to to be full up, in order to keep inquisitive visitors away from the area. For raw materials, another accomplice, Billy Smith, posed as a fisherman/long term resident of the inn and bought up barley from local braes, telling them it was for the manufacture of dog biscuits. Slim's plans went awry due partly he says to Billy Smith's impetuouness. Smith attempted to kill Gimlet by knocking him on the head and dumping him in a mine shaft. This failed because Copper, Cub and Trapper became suspicious when Gimlet was late for an appointment. They came to look for him and found him. Slim tried to make sure of Gimlet's death by tossing a bomb into the mine shaft but by then Gimlet had been pulled out of the pit. Slim then tried to buy off Gimlet and when turned down, tried to kill the commandos by having another bomb thrown into the kitchen of Strathcarglas Lodge. This failed because Gimlet had foreseen Slim's action and have moved their quarters somewhere else in the building. At the end of the storym Slim abandoned his gang and attempted to run away. He got to a car and would have succeeded in driving away but he met an oncoming police car along a narrow track. Trying to get past the opposite vehicle by driving on the wrong side of the road, Slim plunged into a ravine. According to the constables who examined the wreckage, Slim had been "smashed to a pulp." Slim was described as "a dapper, sleek little man, immaculately dressed, whose actions when he moved were quick as a weasel. His face was pale, sallow, with a pronounced shaving mark. He wore a tiny black moustache, cut straight, on his upper lip. The eyes were dark, long and narrow, heavily lidded, under black brows." Cub, who did not know his name at the time he first saw him, concluded that he was probably an American with Italian ancestry. He reminded Cub vaguely of an "American dance-band conductor." Compare this with Fabiano Pantenelli in Biggles Foreign Legionnaire. Slim is also depicted in the Aredit adaptation of Gimlet Comes Home, Retour de King. Here he runs a smaller gang comprising only Burke and Forsyth. He does not die at the end of the story. His car plunges into the ravine but his body is never found. Copper concludes the river current must have swept it away but Gimlet is not so sure. Category:People Category:Gimlet characters